Inclusion

Thank you for Suzanne Gordon's article ("A Child's Lesson in Care-Giving," Aug. 15) on the inclusion of disabled students in the classroom. In order to communicate with deaf students, my own 6-year-old son Erhan, has been learning sign language in his first-grade class. I am convinced that it is facilitating his own reading and writing skills as well I have observed him signing spelling words for his 3-year-old brother and trying to teach him the phrases he learned at school.

PITTSBURGH - Most movie sets orbit around one key individual. Usually, it's the director or the star. Occasionally, it's a heavyweight producer. Seldom is it the writer of the movie's source material. But John Green is not just any writer. On a crisp day in early October as cameras rolled on Fox 2000's film adaptation of his 2012 novel "The Fault in Our Stars," a bestselling love story about two wry, cancer-stricken teenagers, the 36-year-old author was exerting a strong gravitational pull.

I read "Special Ed Joins the Mainstream" (Oct. 25) with great interest because I asked that my children, who have no disabilities, be placed in the inclusion class at their school, as did many other parents. Why? Because a well-run inclusion class can be a great experience for any student. Their class was a multi-age, K-1 double class of 40 children who shared two rooms. The staff included a first-grade teacher, a kindergarten teacher, a special education teacher and a highly skilled instructional aide.

SOCHI, Russia - The International Olympic Committee could take another step this week toward getting baseball and women's softball back into the Olympics as well as adding squash for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. New IOC president Thomas Bach said Monday he expects discussion by the IOC membership at its general meeting on flexibility toward adding sports, for which the Olympic Charter has a seven-year rule. It mandates sports must be on the Olympic program seven years before the summer or winter Olympics in which they will be contested.

I read with interest and dismay the interview with Mortimer J. Adler on the "Great Books" list revision ("A Curmudgeon Stands His Ground," Dec. 3). The crux of the matter, it seems to me, is not the inclusion of books in lists, but the inclusion of culture, thought, and quality of character in people. Adler is represented in your interview as an insufferable, arrogant, bigoted pedant. If people become like him after a lifetime of reading the classics, I say let us do away with the classics.

I take exception with Jonathan Heath [Letters, Oct. 2]. Heath's claim that Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" somehow benefits from its inclusion in the movie "Almost Famous" -- "song and story simply would not be the same without each other" -- is absurd. In this case, the movie is the only one to benefit from this association. The song was already a completed piece of art that was able to stand on its own before its inclusion in the film. The film, however, was not complete until the inclusion of the song.

The Times' article reporting the death of Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes contained many details of his years of loving service to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, with the inclusion of unfounded aspersions, it became in reality a niggling, insensitive insult to the memory of a dedicated priest. Most odious, because it was unsubstantiated innuendo, was the dogmatic pronouncement that "Hawkes lived high." Anonymous churchmen, whose derogatory, mean-spirited remarks were so liberally quoted in a previous article upon monsignor's retirement, should not be the criterion for assessing Msgr.

I'm baffled by the weekly appearance of Callahan cartoons (Palm Latitudes). Any one of the daily single-panel comics in The Times' View section would be more worthy of inclusion than the poorly drawn and unfunny Callahan. BARBARA E. BLAINE Claremont

At last, they marched. On Saturday, dozens of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender immigrants marched in the annual Tet parade in Little Saigon. The rainbow flag, a distinctive symbol of gay pride, fluttered alongside emblems of California, the United States and South Vietnam. "We love you," participants yelled at friends, family members and thousands of others lining the parade route in Westminster, many dressed to celebrate the Lunar New Year. "We love you, too," some eager youths responded, whistling with joy. The historic moment followed months of fighting as organizers initially sought to ban LGBT activists from joining one of the community's biggest events.

Travelers with minimum time will get maximum exposure to some of Japan's and China's highlights with a 10-day excursion offered by Pacific Delight Tours. The tour begins with a three-night stay in Tokyo at the New Otani Garden Tower Hotel. While in the capital, participants will visit the Meiji Shrine; the Imperial Palace, the residence of the Japanese emperor; and the Ginza, the city's frenetic shopping district. A drive through Kanagawa Prefecture will take visitors to Mt. Fuji, where they will stop halfway up the mountain to take in the views, and to Lake Ashi for a tranquil cruise.

After barring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from last year's Tet parade in Orange County, Vietnamese American community members voted 51-36 on Saturday to include them in the Lunar New Year event scheduled for Feb. 1. Supporters called the move historic, pushing opponents not to tarnish the community's image by locking out a vocal segment of its immigrant population. "When there's a vote to include or exclude, it makes me sad. But we have always been fighting for inclusion and equality -- and we knew that inclusion and equality will eventually triumph," said Hieu Nguyen, founder of Viet Rainbow of Orange County.

When the Vatican censured an organization representing thousands of American nuns, it did so in part because the group had not spoken out enough against gay marriage and abortion. The Vatican said the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had espoused "radical feminist themes," adding, "Issues of crucial importance to the life of Church and society, such as the Church's Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching.

If you're among the small number of directors or actors who isn't white, there is finally some cause to be excited about what's happening in Hollywood. For the first time in Academy Awards history, a black man - British filmmaker Steve McQueen - may win the directing Oscar for his heralded, harrowing film "12 Years a Slave. " Besides McQueen, critics and awards voters are celebrating the work of other people of color, singling out "Gravity's" Mexican-born filmmaker, Alfonso Cuarón, the African American talk show host Oprah Winfrey from "Lee Daniels' The Butler," and a variety of black actors, including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o ("12 Years a Slave")

Vietnamese American activists say they will ask Westminster officials to block organizers from staging the colorful Tet parade because they refuse to allow gays to participate in the Lunar New Year event. Parade organizers barred LGBT individuals from marching in the 2013 event and last month voted to ban them again from the upcoming parade. Shunned by one of the community's signature events, many of the gay rights activists stood along the parade route to protest their ouster. Inspired by the activism, they formed Viet Rainbow of Orange County and plan to lobby Westminster council members Wednesday to intervene in what they say is outright discrimination.

I postponed everything on my agenda and hastened to offer my congratulations on the inclusion of McGee's response to Snyder's remarks. Not only did it excoriate the "sugary admiration" but with "justice for all, and malice for none," it enhanced on that special day King's dream. JOSEPH GORDON Los Angeles

Re "Black Radio Debates the Inclusion of White Artists" (Dennis Hunt, March 26): Stations that play only "black" or "white" music are cutting short not only themselves but also their audiences. Perhaps radio is comfortable rolling around in its own form of apartheid. LAURA S. UNDERWOOD Los Angeles

Nelson Mandela was one of the towering figures of the 20th century. Like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi, he was revered around the globe for his vision and courage, and for the enormous personal sacrifices he made to right the wrongs that plagued his country. His half-century battle against apartheid - the system under which millions of South African blacks were governed by the country's white minority - included 27 years behind bars. But he clung to his principles as well as his dignity, and emerged from Victor Verster Prison in 1990, it seemed, without rancor or bitterness.

CAIRO -- A top U.S. diplomat Monday pressed Egypt's interim leaders for a halt to violence and an inclusive transition to a new democratic government after the nation's Islamist president was ousted in a military coup. The visit by Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns came amid widespread anger at U.S. policy toward Egypt and continuing protests demanding the former leader's reinstatement. In remarks to Egyptian reporters, Burns repeated U.S. calls on the military to end “politically motivated arrests,” a reference to the warrants issued for hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members, including ex-President Mohamed Morsi.